TFC’s unbeaten streak comes to an end with loss in Philly
By: Mark | July 18th, 2010
Not a good game yesterday. 2-1 loss to Philadelphia, lost with a last minute penalty shot. And once again Toronto had nothing in attack and would have been lucky to even get a draw in this one. Sometimes I’m really confused by Preki’s decision making, like playing a lone striker against a last team expansion team when no one on the team seemed willing to join in on the attack. Seriously, you can only go so far just playing defense and yesterday that bit them in the ass.
I think Chad Barrett did everything he could as a lone striker, but whenever he did get the ball there was no one to help him, and the attacks fizzled out. Why not play Ibrahim up front with Barrett, try to get an early goal to take the strong home crowd out of the game, which would put pressure on this expansion team? Then you can play a bit more defensively and hopefully pick up another goal on the counter-attack.
There just is not enough talent on the team to expect the midfield to be able to support Barrett by himself unless they are ready to really run up and help him. Which they aren’t. So again we are stuck with trying to get 1 lucky goal and defend. It seems every year TFC falls into a multiple game slump where goals are very hard to come by. And quite frankly, the games are boring when that happens. I just hope this loss isn’t the start of a mid-season slide which results in another season with no playoffs.
I guess I’m being pretty pessimistic here. I hope that next week we get to see the team incorporating a little more of these new strikers (Mista was not eligible to play this week), and they start to pull the offense together. TFC have a tough schedule coming up with two CONCACAF champion’s league games coming up, so they will really need to pull together to get some good results. Come on guys, lets get it together!
Category: 
Comments
-
when are we going to get rid of mo johnston? furthermore, its time to bring a semi big name in from europe, how come LA and NY can do it, but we cant? We have the 2nd richest club on the MLS…. spend some fuckin cash.
-
I’ll be honest and say yesterday’s game was the first MLS game I’ve seen so I can hardly criticize. But it was clear and evident that something bad was going to happen and yet the coach did not seem to make any changes to change the momentum. To lose against the last place team and be dominated the whole game seems a little odd.
Also, juve1 has a point. With how well TorontoFC does you’d think they’d be in a better position to sign a big name. Here’s hoping Mista does well.
-
I’m not sure why TFC haven’t been able to buy a really big-name player, but I think maybe its still a bit too early in the MLS designated player game to expect the stars to come to Toronto. I hate to say it but I think Toronto is not an attractive enough destination for star players to want to come here. Its a little easier for cities like LA and New York to attract these guys, but it may take awhile longer for Toronto to do the same. They did spend a lot of money to get Julian de Guzman, but being a Canadian I think it was a little easier to lure him here.
I don’t really know anything about Mista unfortunately, but I hope his experience will translate to goals in this league. Sure he was released by his last team, but he was playing in Spain, and you don’t play there unless you’re good. I’m sure he still has enough talent to play well in North America.
By the way, here’s a list of all the current and past designated players in the MLS in case you want to see who else has been here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_Player_Rule
Diego, that wasn’t the best game to start watching MLS with, but I hope you try to catch a few more games to see whether you enjoy the league. Its tough to get too excited about it after the World Cup just finished, but one thing I’ve noticed is that the play in MLS can get pretty fast (and rough) sometimes. You don’t see many games where the teams are sitting back and feeling each other out. Maybe that’s a product of international football since all the teams have a lot of talent. In the MLS they just go for it!
Cheers!
-
Well, that was awful. I’m sure the heat played a factor, but man that was just not good enough. I mean, Philly? No offense, but we should be able to beat them, even away from home.
deGuzman was not in the game much. He needs to stamp his authority in the middle. You’re right though, Barrett barely had any support, though he held up the ball pretty well on a couple occassions I remember. I’m liking Gargan, he fits well and works hard. Our passing sucked so bad and I don’t think I need to express how much I don’t want to see Sanyang in the next game. Can’t believe we let Cronin go and kept him.
Even though they didn’t have the greatest of games, Frei, Nana, and Cann are gonna be the reasons we get to the playoffs. We barely score but we keep it tight at the back (again not counting the Philly game). *sigh* We’ll have to get it together quick for the next game. I’m sure Preki gave them hell in the locker room!
Hopefully our new guys will have the scoring touch. Fingers crossed! Go TFC!
-
I mean our record doesn’t say much but the team isn’t THAT bad. Our attack has been pretty legit, its more the backline that’s been a problem and some stupid mistakes that young players make. We also have been starting to get it done at home. 9 of our first 10 games were away. Can’t tell me that’s not tough…
I’m just saying…we’re not a garunteed win.
-
Mmm, I love unbeaten steak.
-
Oops! Thanks for the tip Denny…fixed now.
I don’t really think Philly are a bad team. That was a close game for sure. In fact I don’t think any team can be walked over in this league because of the parity that the salary cap brings, so any team can win any week. The difference is that the good teams will be able to make things happen and consistently get wins, which is what we are starting to expect from Toronto. That’s why this loss against Philly kinda stings.
But how do we go from being a decent team to a good team in this league? I think it depends a lot on the ability of the coach to get the guys to properly execute his tactics, the GM to acquire players that fit into the squad, and of course a lot of luck! Do we have all of these 3 things? Well, I’ll let you guys decide…
-
Sorry Winston, I didn’t mean to slight your team. And no win is guaranteed in this league, I learned that a long time ago! It’s just that our team needs to start showing its intent in this league as a playoff contender and we saw little of that the other day. Since Philly is near the bottom atm they could have taken a bigger chance to get some points.
-
Wilshere should definitely get a chance to breakthrough this season then eh? How can Liverpool afford that anyway? Oh well.
Also, what’s with the papers saying we have a problem with the homegrown rule? Such bollocks, we’re discussed this a few times already and seems we’re very comfortable.
-
Whoops I posted this in the wrong blog. You can delete this Mark, apologies!
-
The Union fans evidently didn’t think much of the Toronto goaltender
http://philly.sbnation.com/2010/7/19/1576813/philadelphia-union-fans-have-a
-
Wow, and this is from the “City of Brotherly Love”! Oh well, it’s all in good fun (I hope)!
-
Sairax, it looks like the red background may have confused you for a minute, but don’t worry we can handle a little EPL talk on this blog too!
-
I thought I heard that during the game lol! Philly have a good fan base, nice to see
-
-
Cool, thanks for the tip! I emailed a question for Mo to see if we can expect more big name signings in the league and TFC. Hopefully I’m echoing the sentiments of the commentors here. We’ll see if my question gets asked.
-
-
OMG we just launched a successful and effective counterattack that ended in a goal!
-
Sorry I didn’t see much of the Bolton game, but I saw a replay of Santos’ goal. Looked pretty good!
Too many academy players in the game, it was hard to get interested by it. But if you want to see hi-lights, you can check them out on the TFC website here:
http://torontofc.neulion.com/tfc/console.jsp?catid=2&id=2133
They have a really busy schedule coming up, so I understand why they didn’t play many starters. I hope the academy players had a good time!
Home 
